I have me brave women who are exploring the outer edge of human possibility, with no history to guide them, and with a courage to make themselves vulnerable that I find moving beyond words.
Gloria SteinemRead
I do not like to write - I like to have written.
Interpretation
This quote expresses a common struggle with the writing process, highlighting the difference between actually writing and the satisfaction of completed work.
Gloria Steinem encapsulates the feeling many writers experience—dreading the act of writing itself, yet cherishing the joy and fulfillment that comes with having completed a piece of work. This dichotomy speaks to the challenges of creative expression, where the journey often feels arduous, but the end result is rewarding.
In practice
In a writing workshop to encourage fellow writers who may feel overwhelmed.
I have me brave women who are exploring the outer edge of human possibility, with no history to guide them, and with a courage to make themselves vulnerable that I find moving beyond words.
If women are supposed to be less rational and more emotional at the beginning of our menstrual cycle when the female hormone is at its lowest level, then why isn't it logical to say that, in those few days, women behave the most like the way men behave all month long?
Age brings a freedom. When you're young, you're much more subject to the idea of what feminine is or how you should look or how you should behave.
All those chemicals that create empathy only work when you are in a room together.
Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.
Obviously, there is much similarity among the challenges of transgender people and all women - from health care to harassment to discrimination in the workplace.
And there was that poor sucker Flaubert rolling around on his floor for three days looking for the right word.
I think a lot of the dull parts of first drafts come from a kind of over-managing, intrusive writer who wants to direct traffic. The idea of taking out the parts that the reader could infer is very liberating, and it's weirdly part of radicalizing your work: it allows you to go to new places fast.
Above all, have a good time. If you aren’t enjoying writing it, you can hardly expect someone else to enjoy reading it.
If you interrupt the writing of fast narrative with too much introspection and self-criticism, you will be lucky if you write 500 words a day and you will be disgusted with them into the bargain. By following my formula, you write 2,000 words a day and you aren’t disgusted with them until the book is finished, which will be in about six weeks.
Composing on the typewriter, I find that I am sloughing off all my long sentences which I used to dote upon. Short, staccato, like modern French prose. The typewriter makes for lucidity, but I am not sure that it encourages subtlety.
When I finish a first draft, it's always just as much of a mess as it's always been. I still make the same mistakes every time.
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